


Everything Slipping Away

by lockwoodstie (PilotInTheStars)



Category: Lockwood & Co. - Jonathan Stroud
Genre: Angst, But She Gets Smooched, F/F, Gen, Holly's Girlfriend - Freeform, I'm Mean to Holly and I'm Sorry, Losing Someone's Talent, Post Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-10
Updated: 2020-04-10
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:48:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23582608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PilotInTheStars/pseuds/lockwoodstie
Summary: The repercussions of Holly losing her Talent.
Relationships: Anthony Lockwood & Holly Munro, Holly Munro/Original Character(s), Lucy Carlyle & Holly Munro
Comments: 8
Kudos: 15





	Everything Slipping Away

**Author's Note:**

> To be honest, I'm not 100% sure how to feel about this. However, I wanted to get it done with to move onto other projects and I knew that if I took a break from this, I might not come back to it. So here it is. 
> 
> Thank you to @sharknana29 for her great beta-ing, as always. <3 
> 
> This is a bit shorter than the other oneshots I've written lately, but I hope you enjoy!!

It was supposed to be a routine case. George and Lockwood were off on one case, Lucy and Holly went to another. It was a house in Mayfair, with a Specter in the attic. The children had claimed to have seen it when they went up there to play one evening, and their parents had heard their shrieking as they clambered downstairs. 

Holly and Lucy had made a good pair on cases recently. If the case went as simply as it sounded, they’d be headed back to Portland Row for the evening. 

The iron circles were set up and all prepared. Tea had been made. Chocolate was available if needed.

Nothing was out of the ordinary. 

George had given Lucy details about the case he had learned, and Holly watched as her eyes skimmed over the pages. 

“Says that a lot of things were left in the attic and kept there. They only started having problems a few years ago. The previous man who owned the house was a jeweler.”

Holly looked around at the empty, cobweb-ridden things that filled the attic. A jewelry box sat on an old nightstand. It likely hadn’t been opened in ages.

“Perhaps it might be that?” Holly suggested.

“Worth a shot.”

They waited longer. The temperature dropped. The miasma increased. Sure enough, a Specter formed, traipsing along, turning mournfully to the box and disappearing there. 

Lucy smiled at Holly. “There it is.”

After a few moments, Holly took a few steps forward to go get it, silver net in hand. The room was still.

“Holly!” Lucy yelled.

Holly spun on the sound of her name, finally catching glimpse of the ghost behind her, hands extended to wrap around her neck. No scream fell from her mouth but she dropped to the ground, scrambling for her rapier. Lucy dashed forward, slicing through the ghost. It dissipated into the air. 

The Source was sealed and locked away by the pair of them. Lucy finally turned towards Holly.

“Was everything alright back there?”

Holly could only nod.

* * *

They got to Portland Row in one piece. Lucy put on the kettle and they both sat in the kitchen.

Holly still felt shaken up after everything. She stared down into her tea mug as if it could look back at her. Her heartbeat was rapid. 

“Are you really sure you’re alright?”

Holly nodded. Lucy seemed somewhat unsure. She looked off into the distance. 

“You didn’t,” she said quietly, “see the ghost at all?”

“Well, I did. After you yelled out to me.”

_It happened._ Agents got ghost-lock, sometimes didn’t hear or see things they should have. It happened to everyone. 

That’s all it was. It couldn’t be anything else.

Lucy looked again as if she wanted to say something. Wanted to suggest what it might be. 

Holly’s 20th birthday had been the month before. This was the age when most people’s Talent began to fade away. When young adults lost their connection to that other world. 

Every birthday the thought crossed her mind, even when her Talent gave no signs of disappearing just yet. 

Holly hoped that this was just a flub. She had been distracted with other things, and just hadn’t seen the ghost. Her Talent was still perfectly normal, like it always had been.

She had worked with a few older agents when she was employed at Rotwell. An occasional few were glad to be rid of their Talent. They went on to look for other non-Problem related employment options. Few had a lot of success, without the proper educational requirements. 

Most other former agents went on to be supervisors, or other workers for their agencies.

Holly had never been entirely sure what she would want to do. She was stable in secretary work, and still did most of it at Lockwood and Co.

But, if she were being honest with herself, she didn’t want to let go. 

* * *

Holly gave a sigh as she walked up to her flat later that afternoon, a million thoughts on her mind. 

She didn’t want to assume the worst, but how could she not? 

The door, having been unlocked, swung open. The apartment was a comforting sight. It was warm, a contrast to the cold outside, the clouds foreshadowing an evening snow. Agnes was sitting at the table. She looked up when Holly entered the room. 

“Hey.” Agnes smiled at her, and Holly couldn’t help but smile in return. “How was your day?”

Holly shrugged a bit. “It was alright.” She had slept the night in the guest room of 35 Portland Row and after a full day of calls and meetings, Holly truly felt exhausted. But being home, at her flat with Agnes, she felt perfectly alright again.

Holly put her coat on the stand by the door and Agnes wrapped her arms around Holly’s waist, pulling her close and kissing her.

Things most certainly would be alright. 

Agnes and Holly fell into their similar routine. They made dinner and ate at the table, then, after all the doors and windows were locked, curled up on the couch.

“Went on a case last night,” Holly said softly.

Agnes raised a brow. It wasn’t that cases weren’t discussed at their flat- but it wasn’t the most common topic of conversation. 

It was a good thing that cases didn’t make fantastic conversation. The two of them spent enough time in that world. Home was a nicer place, with far less spirits and ghosts.

_Though,_ Holly supposed, _the two worlds didn’t seem that different anymore_.

“Did it go alright?” Agnes asked.

“It did. Or it was. It was just Lucy and I. There was a Specter, it should have been simple. I went to get the Source and the ghost snuck up behind me.”

Agnes’s eyes widened. “You’re alright, though, right?”

Holly nodded quickly. “I am- it didn’t get me. Lucy saw it and dashed forward. But… it would have gotten me if she wasn’t there.”

“I’m sorry,” Agnes said.

There was something else she was aching to say. She just had to force herself to say it. 

“It happens, we don’t always notice things but… Agnes, the thought went through my mind this morning. What if I’m losing my Talent?”

Saying the thought out loud was borderline horrifying in a way she couldn’t ever expect it to be. She didn’t mean to look strickenly at Agnes, but it came out that way in the end.

“It’s like you said, it could have just happened. Things like that… they just happen. You’re fine though, and that’s what I care about.”

“I just don’t know what to do,” Holly said softly, as if it was painful to say. “I’m scared that it’s just going to get worse.” Maybe she was jumping to conclusions. Maybe Agnes was right- it had happened just once. 

But she was bound to lose her Talent eventually. 

And it horrified her.

* * *

They stood in the iron circle. Everything had a sort of silence. 

_“I think I’m losing my Talent.”_

_Lockwood looked up, blatant surprise on his features. “How do you know?”_

_Holly, in that moment, had wished she hadn’t said anything. She wished she had just gone on another case._

_But that was foolish. She needed to speak to the company now, rather than later._

_“On the case with Lucy and I, I… I completely missed a Specter. I didn’t know it was there at all.”_ And it’s bound to happen eventually, losing my talent, _Holly thought._

Holly was snapped out of her memories. They had been standing in the iron circles for hours now. Lockwood looked to Holly.

“Do you… see anything?”

Holly looked around the room. It was still. Nothing was there.

“No,” she said softly. Surely they didn’t see anything either?

But she looked to the other iron circles. Lockwood’s eyes were fixed on something near them. 

Holly’s heart felt like it was breaking. 

“Do you see it?” she asked. 

He nodded. 

* * *

The flat was empty- Agnes had told her that morning that she expected to not be home until late, right before Curfew. 

She should have done something. She should have started dinner, cleared off the table, gotten things ready to go to bed early. 

But instead she sat down and wept. 

Something that had been a part of her her whole life, as long as she could remember, was being taken away from her, and she was trying to claw, keep herself attached to that world. She hated it. She absolutely hated it.

Maybe someone with their head on straight would be glad. They’d be glad to be rid of their Talent. No more haunting visions, no more late nights.

Somehow, the world was a little clearer after crying. Her chest hurt and her eyes were red and puffy. 

But even when the world seemed clearer, everything still felt like it was falling apart.

And there was nothing she could do. 

* * *

“The two senior-citizens in the group,” Quill said drily as Holly fixed the goggles on her face. It was a joke, nothing more, and Holly tried her best to smile and found that it helped, in a strange way. 

The goggles were most certainly not a look at all. They’d leave a rim around her eyes once the case was over for the night. But they’d let her see and still be a part of the team. She looked around the small grocery store that had recently called into the company due to a ghost of a young girl that kept running through at night. 

She took them off and put them in her bag for the case.

Holly took a breath. Life would go on. They would keep living. And Holly maintained to do the same.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!! I hope you enjoyed and that you are safe and well out there.


End file.
